TAMPA, Fla. — After President Barack Obama suggested Wednesday that he wants a new constitutional amendment to overturn the landmark “Citizens United” Supreme Court ruling, Citizens United president David Bossie told The Daily Caller he has a message for the president: “Bring it on.”
“President Obama has never paid much attention to, nor cared much for, the founding fathers’ intent,” Bossie said in a phone interview. “So they want to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn the First Amendment. That’s always what the anti-free-speech crowd is about. That’s what this is.”
“Citizens United is, pure and simple, a free speech case that the president and the left can’t handle because they can’t win the argument,” Bossie continued. “They can’t make their own political arguments and win them with the American people so they have to stifle speech. That is the only way the left has ever been able to win in America.” (RELATED: Obama floats constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United)
Obama said Wednesday afternoon during an online event on Reddit.com that he wanted a new constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United ruling. “I think we need to seriously consider mobilizing a constitutional amendment process to overturn Citizens United,” Obama wrote. “Even if the amendment process falls short, it can shine a spotlight of the super PAC phenomenon and help apply pressure for change.”
Obama’s remarks came just one day after Citizens United premiered its new film “The Hope and The Change” at the Republican National Convention.
The film, which Stephen Bannon directed and Democratic strategists Pat Cadell and Kendra Stewart helped oversee, walks viewers through the stories of 40 Democrats and independents around the country who voted for Obama in 2008 but are now disappointed in their choice.
The former Obama supporters open up about how they believe he has failed on economic policies, health care and energy policy, and spends too much time and taxpayer money vacationing, golfing and enjoying other leisure activities.
Cadell said at the film’s RNC premiere that what’s shown in the movie “is what terrorizes the Obama campaign — not the attacks from Republicans and Romney.”
“It’s the voice of the people who voted for him and are disappointed,” Cadell said.
Bossie told TheDC that Obama’s call for a new constitutional amendment was timed to “stifle anyone in America from seeing this film.”
“They’re scared of the message,” Bossie said. “And instead of being able to answer the message, they want to squelch our speech and squelch our rights. And you know what? That’s just a cheap political trick to play toward his base, but the American people are smarter than him. For a so-called ‘constitutional attorney’ at Harvard, I don’t think he respects the Constitution.”
“They’re terrified of this film and of its message,” Bossie added. “They’re terrified that we have identified a soft underbelly of Barack Obama — a weakness, if you will — and that is with Democrats and independents who once supported him and are now not [supporting him]. Those are the keys to his re-election.”
Bossie said he fully expects the Democratic Party to adopt Obama’s call for an anti-Citizens United constitutional amendment into its platform at next week’s Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. But only far-left-wing Democrats, he said, the extreme wing of the party, will really support such an idea.
“I think it’s probably right that there are plenty of Democrats who would disagree with this [Obama’s proposals],” he said. “Smart Democrats, and we have plenty of them, don’t want to tinker with the Constitution. I think the American people and state legislatures would reject this soundly.”
“I’m more than happy to take him on on this case. I’m more than happy to take him on with a constitutional amendment. I say ‘bring it on,’ because it goes nowhere. And I think he knows it goes nowhere. It’s a cheap political ploy by him.”